A new service is about to launch in Italy offering downloadable images of saints for display on mobile phone screens, to the annoyance of some in the Italian church who feel that technology has no part to play in reinforcing faith.
The Guardian newspaper quotes the bishop of Adria-Rovigo, on Lucio Soravito, who describes the …

COMMENTS

Idolatry, much?

I thought one of the major differences between the Eastern and Western churches was the acceptance of the use of icons by the one and not the other. Meh. Saints are just early Christian accommodations to polytheism anyway. One imaginary friend is as good as another, I guess.

top of the range mobiles

Bit rich

As the worship (sorry, veneration) of saints already violates the First Commandment, while the use of relics and other knickknacks violates the Second (or the First depending on how the Commandments are sliced) it's a bit rich saying it's un-Christian to put pictures of them on your mobile phone.

A bit slow on the uptake...

The silly buggers

haven't even realized Pope John Paul II isn't a saint YET. His canonization process was supposedly started just after his death, upon public pressure, and stories about his miraculos healings pop up every now and then in our Italian press, just because the churc'n'politics lobby is trying to speed things up.

PLus, all of these mobe* services clearly are a total ripoff, yet the yoofs and the lonely housewives persist on being lured into them.

Could we sue the service providers? Please?!? After all, the service is called "Protector SAINTS" .. surely that's misleading??

@The Other Steve

@ Dave Thompson

The Other Steve's comments might have offended you, but they certainly weren't baseless. In fact, there is evidence to support every one of his assertions. I think what you meant was that you didn't like them; fair enough.

@ Will Leamon

Never mind a thesaurus, you need a dictionary son. Look up "cult". Merriam-Webster says "a system of religious beliefs and ritual". Certain cults don't like being called cults, but that doesn't change what they are.

All Hail His Noodly Appendage!

I second AC's demand for FSM iconography! It's our right as jedis (jedii?) dammit!

Back in my teen days me and a few friends created the Barbara Windsor Religious Front, in honour of the First Queen of Bawdy Humour. If ANYONE is in more need of religious idolatry than Barbara Windsor, then that religion is frankly made up!

@ Spleen

These people are Roman Catholics, not Jews!

Roman Catholics believe Jesus came to fulfil the Law [most of Matthew] and the old Law no longer applies; instead, the greatest commandments are "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." [22:37-40]

Therefore, all the laws of the Old Testament, including the Ten Commandments, the prohibition on eating pork [Leviticus 11:7], shellfish [11:12], meat and milk together [Exodus 23:19] (but is it OK to eat meat from one kind of animal and milk from another, since the original exhortation was not to "seethe a kid in his mother's milk" -- probably a sacrificial ritual of some rival tribe?) and wearing polyester-cotton [Deuteronomy 22:11] do not apply to Roman Catholics.

You talk too much ....

The Iconoclastic Controversy

"I thought one of the major differences between the Eastern and Western churches was the acceptance of the use of icons by the one and not the other"

I belive the issue was concerning icons "in the round" - statuettes, rather than paintings or bas-reliefs.

Having said that - what difference between an image done in pixels and one done in oils? Why is it wrong to get an image via download, but ok to get a mass-produced medal at some dodgy healing shrine? Why the hoo-hah about this, when people are selling eggplant with pictures of Jesus on them on eBay?

Bah. It's because there's no money in it for the church, that's why. Someone ought to have applied for a software patent on getting divine blessings by means of arrangements of coloured pixels, or something.

Remember children: if you kiss God's arse long enough and sincerely enough, he will do tricks and give you free stuff.

Religion and $ are never far apart ...

For the defence I offer you .... Crazy Frog, Ringtones, Porn. None of them anything to do with religion but which pulled in shed loads of money from the weak of mind. Religious icons on your mobile is just an extension of this and pretty much nothing to do with mainstream religion. So off your high horses you lot.

I've rarely seen fervour such as practised here by atheists and agnostics, outside of an old fashioned Baptist Church. It seems a shame to waste such passionate belief on ...... nothingness. But each to his own - except that seems to be unacceptable to this great new world religion's Jihadists with their very vocal intolerance of others as demonstrably practised here.

Puts A Whole New Spin On...

Finger trouble.

No techonology?

"...to the annoyance of some in the Italian church who feel that technology has no part to play in reinforcing faith."

Better get the pope et al to start taking lessons in projecting their voice, as they'll have to spread the word of the lord by mouth (and maybe stone tablets and scrolls) as they won't be able to use books, TV, radio, t'internet etc and even radio mikes etc in churches themselves if that's their attitude!

Business is business

religion is primarily a business.

so it always was, so it always will be.

religion sells warm-fuzzies, righteousness, guilt, power, and the excuse to brutalize and/or kill those who do not believe EXACTLY as you do (according to the methodology of your particular church, or other faith-based murder-license-granting institution). there are some other accessories (processions, holidays, outfits, facilities, hatreds, etc.), that vary by cult.

in the US, religion is a trillion-dollar, tax-free business.

if a church is also a state (see GW Bush & Gang), all the better, as it makes for a bigger (also more righteous and more deadly) business. a church that is a state has the special ability to mount Crusades (this is armed robbery writ large, see below for references).

for more historical examples (a non-exhaustive list), see:

-the Crusades

-the Holy Inquisition

-the Salem Witch Trials

-the Divine Right of Kings

-Timothy McVeigh

-Jerry Falwell

-abortion clinic bombers

-Abu Sayyaf

-Red Army Faction (ideology as religion)

-Baader-Meinhof Gang (same as previous)

-the Cultural Revolution (and again)

-WW2

-Ancient Rome ("Jews vs. Lions")

-Darfur

-9/11

-"The 300" (Xerxes was a God-Emperor)

-Ancient Egypt (the Pharaohs were considered semi-divine)

-Sunni vs. Shi'a (vs. New Crusaders)

......

or any other 2-to-5-way matches by Christians vs. Muslims vs. Jews vs. heathens vs. "unbelievers" throughout recorded human existence.